Mumbai, September 21: Early this season, still waiting for the big break, Rohit Sharma had revealed his very conservative plan for the future. “Hope I make my senior international debut at home. You never know what can happen on those bouncy tracks abroad where the ball comes to your chin,” he said, sitting in a modest suburban restaurant where he had just arrived in his new luxury car.

Besides the smooth transition from being a promising junior to an India-A regular, the 20-year-old Borivali boy had climbed the social ladder too. He had moved from his rented accommodation to his own 2 BHK flat in the upscale area of the same suburb. But the escalating property rates in South Mumbai — his dream destination — and star-studded Indian batting line-up made him skeptical about his further ascent.

After an inconsequential international debut at Belfast where he got to play just 9 balls in two games, Sharma walked on to the pitch at Durban in a situation worse than what he dreaded.

Nothing was going as planned in the do-or-die game for India as Shaun Pollock and Mkhaya Ntini were on fire and the scoreboard read 33/3. At the back of young man’s mind was also his sudden exit from ODI squad for the first three games of the upcoming series against Australia.

But as the chairman of national selectors Dilip Vengsarkar says, “These are the situations that shows the true potential of a batsman. One can score double hundreds in inconsequential games but even a 50 in such a game is far more important.”

He goes on to speak about Sharma’s 50 — the innings that saw the transition of the Borivali boy to the Durban hero. “He showed great temperament. And it is extremely elating as a selector when a junior comes off the bench to play a match-winning innings.”

Since he burst into the international scene by scoring 201 runs in five games during the Junior World Cup in 2006, Sharma is known in the circuit as a batsman with a simple technique, graceful style and, as Vengsarkar adds, “lots of time to play his strokes.”

But Sharma’s friends keep it simple as they can’t stop speaking about last night’s ‘kadak’ knock. They speak fondly about Indian cricket’s newest star, who hasn’t changed a bit and still constantly keeps in touch with them. No doubt, Sharma groaned about his cell phone bill to a journalist recently and asked him to keep in touch through mail.

Just before leaving for England as the team gathered at Mumbai’s Taj, Sharma invited his friends to his room. “Tapori log ko five-star dekhna tha,” he says when asked about his crowded room.

And later at night when Sharma heard on television about a building collapse in Borivali, he drove 40 km to check about his suburban friends.

While experts say that it is too early to call him the next great Mumbai batsman, not since two Shardashram School boys entered record books has a junior cricketer been followed so closely. Vengsarkar says: “The challenge for him now is to go to next level.”

• Rohit Sharma’s 50 not out off 40 balls is his maiden fifty.

• Rohit’s innings is now the highest for India against South Africa, eclipsing Dinesh Mongia’s 38 off 45 balls at Johannesburg on 1.12.2006.

• The 85-run stand between Rohit and Dhoni is India’s best for the fifth wicket and the second best in Twenty20 Internationals, next only to the 119 unbeaten between Shoaib Malik and Misbah-ul Haq against Australia at Johannesburg on 18.9.2007.